I'll Always Remember You
by MyGoldStar
Summary: Just a little Puckleberry friendship oneshot set during The Quarterback. Friendship Hurt/Comfort Rated T for Safety


_This little thing came about because of a long conversation with my favourite fanfic author, __**Fire Girl125. **__It's still unreal that we can talk for hours. She helped a lot with this. Thank you so much. This is dedicated to her. Hope you enjoy!_

**Nope, I do not own Glee. **

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After Rachel finished singing 'Make You Feel My Love' the room was silent. Everyone was emotionally over-whelmed. Devastated. Slowly, one by one, the room began to clear out. First went Santana with Sam, then Tina with Mike, followed by Kurt and Blaine with Mercedes close behind them. Mr Schue left with his head held high. Then the newbies left, Marley with her boyfriend, Kitty (along with Artie) and, finally, Ryder and Unique went their separate ways. Throughout this, everyone was silent. No one spoke a word.

Whilst everyone was leaving, Rachel had turned her back on them and succumbed to the tears that were already trickling down her face. Kurt had stopped to give her a brief hug on his way out, but she could barely bring her arms up to respond. Her only thought was 'I'll never be able to hug _him_ again'. And that fact almost killed her.

Obviously, she had her back turned, crying, so she couldn't see who was leaving. When she assumed everyone had gone, Rachel collapsed on the floor crying. 'Why did he have to go?' she asked nobody in particular, sobbing.

'I don't know,' a deep voice said solemnly.  
Footsteps came closer and closer until the voice crouched down beside Rachel and took her into his arms.  
"Puck?" she whispered, her sobs having slowed.  
"Look, Rach, I can't claim to know how you feel. You just lost your soul mate after all. But I do know what overwhelming grief feels like. We all do. He was our leader. He was my best friend. He loved us all. He loved you more, though, Rachel. He cared about you, right? You know that. He told me about the time he went to New York to beat the crap out of your ex-boyfriend. Even when you weren't together, he still dropped everything to come to your rescue." This made Rachel sob harder than ever. "Hey, shh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it worse."  
She sniffled and sat up a little. "No, it's not that. I've been like this for the past month anyway. And stop comforting me. Just stop, okay? Can you bring him back? No. So nothing is going to help."  
Puck looked her in the eye. "If I could, I would. Whatever it would take."  
Rachel shook her head."Ahh, what am I doing? I'm acting like I'm the only one hurting. For once, I should stop thinking I'm more important than everyone and comfort them instead. Starting with you, Puck."  
At his puzzled gaze, she sighed. "Cry, Puck. Cry like you've never cried about anything before. Stop bottling it all up inside of you. I know you think you should be a rock for me, for Kurt, Carole, everyone... but in this hard time, you're allowed to cry. I won't judge you."  
Rachel could feel Puck begin to shake with sobs, so she carefully guided him over to two of the chairs in the back of the classroom and with her knees pushed them closer together. Then, she positioned him so he had his head on her left shoulder as she cradled his head. Together, they cried their grief and sorrow out. They didn't speak a word; they just sat there, silently comforting one another.  
Maybe that was the best thing to do in situations like that. Gather as one, cry and comfort.

"Fi-Finn wouldn't want us to be upset. He'd want us to be happy that he lived, rather than sad that he die- be sad that he doesn't anym-more," Rachel murmured, finding it hard to say some of the words. Finding it hard, still, to believe that he's gone.  
"One time, after Beth was born, Finn and I went for a drive. It wasn't the first time we had done that. It was somewhat calming to us to drive around talking. Surreal, even. He just suddenly stopped the car in the middle of an empty road and started talking about how he wanted to forgive you and Quinn for doing what you did but he didn't think he could. He looked at me confused whilst he was saying this, and a single tear fell down his face." Rachel got a distant look in her eye, almost as if she was in a different world. "I wiped it away with the back of my hand and said 'Finn, stop worrying about it. It's over, it's done, there's nothing that you can do about it now. As for Quinn and Puck, they're happy now. Now, I admit, you and Quinn together was the perfect high school couple. The tall jock with the blond head cheerleader. But that didn't mean you two were meant to be. Maybe Quinn and Puck are. But we're not them, okay? You don't know what they were thinking or why they did it. All I know is what's happening right now, Finn. All I know is that I love you more than I love Barbra, and, for some strange reason, you love me too.' And as I said earlier, we sang. We sang that song like we never had before. And I love that." Rachel came back to Earth as she finished and risked a glance at Puck who had an unfamiliar glisten in his eye.

The side of his mouth turned up. "When Santana called Finn up to come beat that Brody guy up he looked so angry I couldn't believe it. If we had have been in the choir room he'd have kicked a bin over, I swear, he was that mad! I asked him what was wrong but he didn't answer, he just mumbled something like 'Stupid gigolo, playing my girl. I'll show him not to mess with my future wife.' He loved you, Rachel. I know it's hard to believe now, but he did. Still does."  
She gave a feeble smile, unable to use her signature radiant, beaming smile.  
She felt Puck straighten up beside her. "Look, I don't say this often, but I think I just had a great idea!" He said.  
"What is it, Noah?" she asked tiredly, reverting back to calling him his full name. That resulted in a mocking death stare from him.  
"The plaque we have for that old woman, what's her name?"  
"Lillian Adler?"Rachel replied, confused.  
"Yes, her. You should do one like that, only for Finn!"  
She raised her eyebrows, contemplating the idea. "Oh my God! Puck! That's a great idea! And I know exactly what I'm going to put on it...".  
"What?" he wondered.  
"Well," she began. "There's a little saying that goes like this: 'The show must go on'. Well, Finn's version of that went a little something like this...".

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_Just a sweet Puckleberry friendship oneshot that should have been in The Quarterback episode._

_Oh, and go check __**Fire Girl125**__ out after you review this, yeah?_

_Reviews are love (and also a reward for staying awake until 1am writing this lol)._


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